Hi Guys! So this is it - here comes the final chapter of my first but not last story. I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, I would have never got that far without you. You have encouraged me to keep trying and keep writing and it has been an incredible journey! Reviewers, followers, readers...thank you!

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It was a quiet ride home. Tyreese agreed to lend them the cars, which they agreed to leave halfway between the prison and Woodbury, when they reached their own vehicles.

There were no loud displays of longed reunion, just hugs and silent tears of relief. Exhaustion and sadness had fallen on the group heavily, all of them painfully aware of two bodies wrapped in dirty sheets on the car deck.

Andrea hadn't been with them in the prison, but she'd been the part of their group from the very beginning and her pointless death made Rick to grit his teeth.

He should have expected it; he should have known they had been waiting outside. He grieved Andrea's death but he was afraid for Michonne no less. She was devastated, not talking, not looking at anybody. She'd insisted she would have stayed on the car deck with the bodies and one she'd got on, she hadn't moved an inch, silent statue of grief and despair. Rick knew firsthand what a grief for the loved one could do to a person, how thin the border between rationality and madness was.

Rick had been shocked to find out it was Merle, who had saved Daryl and Carol and had killed the Governor. The man had been trying to manipulate and destroy almost everything and everyone within his reach but he'd seemed to find his redemption at the end. Merle had done some horrible deeds but the love for his brother had outweighed it all. Therefore Rick hadn't hesitate a second when Carol had asked him to bury Merle among their people.

Rick looked into a rear-view mirror at Daryl and Carol, who were sitting in the back with Beth and the baby. Carol was half asleep, leaning against Daryl who had one arm protectively around her shoulders but he seemed miles away, staring out of the window.

"How's your side?"

Daryl didn't hear his question and Rick cleared his throat to catch his attention.

"Daryl?"

Daryl didn't tear his eyes off the passing landscape.

"It's fine."

Rick sighed and focused on driving.

By the time they reached the prison, it was already getting dark. Hershel was impatiently waiting at the gate. They stopped the cars and Glenn got out to help him with the gate, taken aback a little when older man pulled him into a fierce embrace. When the gate was closed and they one by one got out of the cars, Beth and Maggie ran to their father.

Rick had never seen to cry the old man so hard. Hershel had always been their voice of reason, the beacon of humanity whenever they had been tempted to take a wrong path, calm and balanced father and mentor. Watching him to walk from one to another, not believing they were all alive, hugging them and thanking God, made Rick realize how close call it had been. Rick looked at Judith he was holding on his arm, while the other one was wrapped around Carl's shoulders, and felt his own tears wetting his cheeks.

Rick watched Hershel approaching Michonne, who was still motionlessly sitting on the deck beside Andrea's body, staring into the woods. He saw Herschel dropping his head, touching Michonne's arm lightly. She didn't look at him, sprung out and disappeared in the prison.

Hershel's eyebrows cocked in surprise when he identified the second body and he looked towards the car, where Daryl with Carol were still sitting. Carol was fast asleep and Daryl was trying to figure out how to get her to prison without waking her up. He didn't trust his wobbly legs and his side hurt like hell. The last thing he wanted to do was to drop her on the ground and add to her pain and injuries.

"How are you son?" Hershel's voice disrupted Daryl from his thoughts.

He turned his tired face to the old man.

"Just peachy," Daryl growled, looking down at Carol, "could ya ask Rick or Glenn to help me to get her inside? Don't wanna wake her up, she'd been through hell."

Hershel noticed that his shirt was soaked in blood.

"You didn't seem to have a blast either…I'll check on Carol, but I want to see you next. I need to patch you up again before you pass out from a blood loss."

Carol was sitting awake on Hershel's bed when Daryl came in. He glanced at her quickly, nodded shortly and turned his eyes away, sitting on the chair Hershel pulled out for him. Carol felt panic rising in her throat. Something was off, she could feel it. When the imminent danger passed, Daryl pulled away from her.

Daryl rolled up his shirt and Carol gasped. He looked at her but his eyes darted away quickly. His injury looked terrible. The stiches were torn out and nasty gash was still bleeding. She reacted on instinct, grabbing the gauze Hershel had prepared on the table and started cleaning his wound. She gripped his shoulder and she wasn' t sure whether it was to restraint him from moving or support herself. He hissed at the contact of his broken skin with disinfection but didn' t say a word as he stared on the floor.

Carol was wondering how she was supposed to act around him. They kissed before the hell had broken out, but what did it mean to him? Did he want to continue? Did he want to ignore it? Did it actually mean anything at all to him? Just a couple of days ago, she would have sworn it had meant to him as much as it had meant to her but she wasn't so sure anymore.

Or was it Merle' s death that made him so reclusive again? Did he think that he wasn't worth his brother' s sacrifice? That she wasn't worth it? Did he blame her? Sure, he'd come for her all the way to Woodbury and saved her, but she knew he would have done it for any member of their group. She felt her eyes tearing up and blinked quickly and to push the tears away. Her heart ached. All she wanted was to wrap herself around him and never let go. Her memories of him, no matter how painful they had been, had somehow kept her alive in Woodbury and now she was touching him but the distance between them seemed insurmountable.

She looked at Hershel, who held out a sewing kit but she shook her head. Her hands were trembling and she was exhausted to death, she didn't trust herself to do it properly. She finished cleaning up his wound and ran her fingers gently across his arm. She noticed he shivered but didn't look up to meet her eyes. She sighed and walked out of Hershel's cell, feeling his eyes burning holes into her back.

She laid on her bunk and desperately waited for sleep to come and shut her thoughts, which were causing her even greater headache. She heard his footsteps leading to his cell, stopping there for a while and then heading out again, hesitating slightly in front of her cell. She sprung to her feet as quickly as her sore body allowed and her heart stopped when she saw him dressed, with his crossbow across his shoulder, ready to go hunting.

"Where…? Why…?" she was trying hard to put a sensible sentence together, but the fear that gripped her heart was overwhelming and it swept her rhetorical skills away.

"Don't go," she managed to breathe out quietly.

Daryl's eyes softened when he saw how terrified she was. He wanted to reach out and put his arms around her to assure her that everything would be all right, but his worn out brain didn' t seem to be strong enough to send the signals to his arms.

"I'm gonna be back soon. Just need to clear my head, 's all," he said, locking his eyes with hers.

Daryl wasn't back for his brother's funeral and Carol thought it was probably better that way. It was awkward to say something nice about the man who had hurt some of them so much. Carol took the responsibility for this because despite all Merle's cruel deeds, she'd owed him for her and Daryl's life. The only moment when she regretted Daryl wasn't there was when Beth stepped out and told them what Merle had done for her in Woodbury. Daryl deserved to hear that his brother had helped somebody else as well and she was going to make sure Beth would tell him when he came back.

Daryl was gone for two days. Carol knew that "soon" was very flexible word in Dixon's vocabulary but it didn't help her to feel any better. They needed to talk, they needed to figure out what to do next and the uncertainty was eating her from inside.

Carol wasn't quite sure what she would have done if Daryl had turned her down and called this fragile and new relation between them a mistake. Mere thought of such outcome made her head spin. She knew there was no help for her if this would have happened. She had been lost the moment she had watched Daryl's body hitting the ground during the Governor's attack. The heaviness of this memory made her trembles all over again. It was in that particular moment, when she'd realized what she'd lost. Not just a friend, not just a protector or her secret love. She'd been convinced she'd lost herself. Her last and only true chance for real happiness, the only person she wanted and needed to live for.

When he'd come for her to Woodbury and she'd realized he hadn't been an illusion created by her tortured mind, her life had been revived in one powerful moment when she'd woken up staring right into his worried eyes. Only she hadn't owned her life anymore. It'd belonged to him, whether he'd asked or not.

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard a sound of familiar footsteps on the stairs. Carol sat up on the bed, impatiently watching the entrance of her cell. She had no strength to get up and meet him; she just hoped he would come to see her. Just as her hope started to falter, Daryl showed up and stopped in the doorway to look at her. He was barefoot, dressed in clean shirt and pair of pants she'd left in his cell. The water was dripping from his wet hair.

They didn't say anything for what seemed to be an eternity, soft moonlight illuminating his form. He shifted his weight hesitantly and she gave him a small shy smile. This did it for him. Suddenly he was in her cell and dropping to his knees, he pressed his face into her lap and he put his arms around her waist tightly.

Carol sighed in relief and the sob she didn't know she was holding found the way to her lips, when she buried her fingers into his wet hair, inhaling the scent of cheap soap he'd found on his last run.

"I'm sorry," she heard him murmur into her lap.

She was still overwhelmed by his closeness so she wasn't sure if she'd heard him right.

"What for?" she asked quietly, running her fingers through his hair, gently massaging his skull.

She felt him tightening his grip on her waist.

"For lettin' the son of bitch hurt ya, for not getting' to ya sooner, for leavin' ya again…"

Carol started shaking her head and tried to stop him but he didn't let her as he continued in his quiet apologies.

"I' m sorry for not treatin' ya right, for wastin' all that time thinkin' we've got plenty left."

Carol could feel on her thighs the heat radiating from his face. She didn't even realize she was crying, when she leaned to him and kissed him into his hair. She wished somebody pinched her so she could be sure she wasn't dreaming.

Her heart was beating hard against her chest when he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.

"I'm a mess Carol, but I promised him I'm not gonna screw this up…and I really wanna try hard…for ya, for us, if ya let me…"

His eyes were almost pleading but the confusion clouded his face when he saw her crying. She smiled through her tears and she turned to give a small kiss into his palm as his hands were gently exploring her face now.

"It's not gonna be easy with me, I'm warnin' ya woman…," Daryl looked at her sheepishly, "ya know that better than anyone."

Carol nodded and smiled: "I'm willing to take my chances."

Daryl grinned up at her.

"And we've got plenty of time left…I will give you hard time as well you know?" she whispered into his ear.

His smile widened and he got up from his knees. When he leaned to her for a kiss, she met him halfway, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her brain switched off, letting her body and instincts to do the work, eager for every touch. She surprised herself how bold she was and how much she wanted him. Daryl groaned into her mouth and moved farther on the bed trapping her under him, struggling for dominance and winning when she slowly melted under him. They knew there would be time for gentle and slow love making, but it was not tonight. They had been too close to death, too close to losing each other to waste another moment. They wanted everything and they wanted it now.

Carol woke up with first rays of light peeking into their cell. She let her eyes closed for a few extra moments, savouring the warmth of the body next to her. Daryl was sound asleep, lying on his side with one arm thrown over her belly. She kissed him gently on his eyebrow but he didn't even stir. The blanket was down to his knees and she couldn't help but stare again on his beautifully shaped body and her cheeks turned bright red, when she remembered how perfectly they'd fit together.

Suddenly she heard the footsteps on the stairs and threw a blanket over Daryl just in time to see Rick peeping into her cell.

"Carol, haven't you seen D…oh sorry," Rick stopped in the middle of his sentence, raising his eyebrows in surprise when he spotted sound asleep Daryl next to very naked Carol, who was clutching a blanket against her chest, cheeks burning . Rick quickly regained his composure but the huge grin was spreading across his face.

He shook his head in amusement.

"You know Carol…if somebody had told me back at the quarry that it would have been you, who would have worn out this angry redneck one day, I would have thought that the person had gone mad."

"Mind your own business, smartass," Daryl grumbled, opening one eye lazily and yawning.

Rick laughed and turned to leave.

"Enjoy the day guys. There's not much to do today, just take some rest," he smirked on the way out.

Daryl stretched and when Carol tried to climb over him, he pulled her down into a warm embrace.

"Where do ya think ya're goin' woman?"

"Just want to help Beth with breakfast," Carol replied but made no attempt to pull out of his arms.

He ran his fingers up to her spine and smirked when he saw her shiver.

"Ya heard Rick, there's no reason to hurry. We are at home."